Palestinian prisoner Juma’a Ibrahim Adam was born on 9 March 1969 in Sweileh, Jordan, and lived northwest of the city of Jericho, occupied Palestine, in the town of al-Dyouk. He is one of six brothers, and his father died while he was still a young child in 1972. While imprisoned by the Israeli occupation, he lost his mother, and the prison administration did not allow him to see her before her death or to attend her funeral. “The most difficult and painful situation that I went through during my time in prison was the death of my mother,” he said.

He is one of the “old prisoners” seized before the Oslo agreement. He was arrested on 31 October 1988 at the age of 19 for participating in the Palestinian resistance, specifically for throwing Molotov cocktails at a bus of occupation soldiers, along with fellow prisoner Mahmoud Abu Kharabish and former prisoner Ahmed al-Takrouri. After this resistance action, which came at the height of the great popular Intifada in occupied Palestine, the occupation army closed all areas of the West Bank and imposed a siege on Jericho, searching the homes of Palestinians house by house. Occupation forces destroyed the homes of the imprisoned resistance fighters, including the Takrouri family home, the home of his uncle Abdel-Rahim Moamen Takrouri, and the home of Juma’a Adam’s grandmother, where he was raised from childhood. He had been arrested previously in December 1986 on charges of throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at occupation soldiers and sentenced to 22 months in occupation prisons. He was released in July 1988 and seized again months later for his role in the resistance.

After his arrest and under interrogation, Juma’a and his companions were subjected to severe torture. “We were tortured sadistically and brutally from the moment we were arrested, and we were threatened with murder at the hands of soldiers and interrogators for a period of 70 days in al-Moskobiyeh,” the notorious interrogation center. All this was done to force them to confess to the charges against them. The occupation courts issued a life sentence against them.

Life in Prison

He has been repeatedly and systematically denied family visits. His one brother in Palestine has been denied permission to visit him on the basis of “security,” while the rest of his brothers are in exile from Palestine. Within the prison walls, Juma’a has dedicated himself to education, completing high school and undergraduate studies, obtaining a bachelor’s degree from the Hebrew University in political science. He is now studying remotely for a master’s degree in political science, specializing in Israeli affairs, from Al-Quds University. Juma’a Adam is today held in Hadarim prison, and as a result of the long years he has spent behind occupation bars, his health has deteriorated and he suffers from blood disease. He was transferred to the Ramle prison clinic for examinations more than once, and the occupation did not provide him with follow-up or proper treatment.